Massa bids final farewell to Ferrari

Felipe Massa bids final farewell to Ferrari at team’s Maranello headquarters.

The Brazilian leaves Ferrari for Williams after eight years with the team.

The 32-year-old won 11 races during his eight year career at Scuderia, a record which sees him as the second longest serving driver that the team has ever known, behind former team-mate Michael Schumacher. While his eleven Grand Prix victories, is the fourth highest for a Ferrari driver, level with current team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Massa is of course making way for former team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who is returning to the team to partner Alonso next season.

During the period of his 140 race career with Ferrari, the Italian team won back-to-back Constructors championships in 2007-2008, with Massa himself narrowly missing out on the drivers title in 2008.

With his team and family celebrating in the pit-lane, Massa crossed the line to win the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton sixth, this was enough for Massa to be crowned champion.

However just seconds later, Hamilton overtook Trulli on the last corner to clinch fifth and secure the points required to snatch the F1 title away from Massa.

As Massa bid farewell to the team at Maranello at the teams Christmas party, Ferrari gave Massa the V8 engine from the Ferrari F2008 which nearly won him the title.

?We started together so many years ago and I want to thank all of you, mechanics, engineers, everyone who works at the track and behind the scenes in Maranello,? said Massa as quoted by formula1.com.

As well as the highs, Massa and Ferrari also experienced the lows, with Massa suffering a near fatal crash during the weekend of the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

?Each one of you has always given me so much support, especially in the most difficult moments and I will never forget what Ferrari did for me when I had my accident in 2009. It?s in these circumstances that one understands what it means to be really loved and the atmosphere at Ferrari and the unique feeling of being part of the family is something I will miss a lot.?